JPMorgan has been expanding its asset management division: it hired 1,400 people in the 12 months to June 2013. Now JPMorgan’s asset management business has hired one more person: Stephanie Flanders, the economics editor at the BBC.

Flanders, who is reportedly joining JPMorgan’s asset management business in a new role as chief market strategist for the UK and Europe, reportedly said it was time for a new challenge. According to the Daily Mail, she will join JPM on £400k a year, thereby tripling her pay. Flanders has pedigree. She achieved a first class degree in PPE from Oxford University before becoming a columnist for the Financial Times and joining the BBC’s Newsnight programme in 2002. Flanders has dated both Ed Balls and Ed Miliband, but says she’s nauseated by George Osborne.

Separately, Dealbook has some interesting information for anyone looking for a way of getting into a leading hedge fund. It points to U.S. recruitment company, BattleFin, which reportedly runs quantitative competitions aimed at piquing the interest of mathematical geniuses. The latest, called Big Data Combine, asks participants to build a predictive model for stock price movements. Winners from around the world are wooed by some of the biggest hedge funds in North America.

Meanwhile:

The number of BlackBerry phones used by Credit Suisse has more than halved from a high of more than 16,500 two years ago, to 8,500. The number of personal mobile phones used for work at the bank rose from zero to 22,000 in just 18 months. (Financial Times)

Lehman UK will repay £5bn to creditors soon, and is on track to repay £40bn. (Telegraph)

Much of an investment banker’s life consists of spurts of feverish activity interspersed with agonizing stretches of boredom, an activity often characterized as hurry up and wait. (Epicurean Dealmaker)